Compassion fatigue in journalism

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Compassion fatigue (CF) is an evolving concept in the field of traumatology. The term has been used interchangeably with secondary traumatic stress (STS)s. [1] Secondary traumatic stress is the term commonly employed in academic literature, although recent assessments have identified certain distinctions between compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress (STS). [2]

Contents

Compassion fatigue is a form of traumatic stress resulting from repeated exposure to traumatized individuals or aversive details of traumatic events while working in a trauma-exposed profession. [3] This indirect form of trauma exposure differs from experiencing trauma oneself. [1]

The concept was originally observed and studied in healthcare providers and mental health providers. Recently the effects of compassion fatigue have been studied in numerous professional fields whose role involves witnessing human or animal suffering. These have included teachers, [4] veterinarians, [5] law enforcement officers, [6] and journalists.[ citation needed ]

CF is considered to be the result of working directly with victims of disasters, trauma, or illness [1] and can be applied to those working in journalism, photojournalism, film, media, and online content review.

Compassion fatigue has also been called secondary victimization, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious traumatization. [7]

Symptoms

Professionals who experience compassion fatigue may exhibit a variety of symptoms including, but not limited to, lowered concentration, numbness or feelings of helplessness, irritability, lack of self-satisfaction, withdrawal, aches and pains, exhaustion, anger, or a reduced ability to feel empathy. [8]

Those affected may experience an increase in negative coping behaviors such as alcohol and drug usage. Professionals who work in trauma-exposed roles may begin requesting more time off and consider leaving their profession. [9]

Significant symptom overlap exists between compassion fatigue and other manifestations, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). [10] One distinguishing factor lies in the origin of these conditions, with PTSD stemming from primary or direct trauma, while compassion fatigue arises from secondary or indirect trauma. [3]

Prevention and mitigation

In an effort to reduce and minimize the impact of compassion fatigue, many organizations have begun implementing compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress prevention training which educate workers on the occupational risk [11] in helping and protecting professions, raise awareness about symptoms, and teach skills such as coping tools to apply before and after stressful situations, working with integrity, and creating a support system that includes individuals and resources that can provide understanding and are sensitive to the risks of compassion fatigue. Workers also learn how to decompress and destress, utilizing self-care, and traumatic stress reduction tools. [12]

Listed supports can include:[ citation needed ]

Journalism

Journalists can suffer psychologically and emotionally from the stories that they cover. Journalists who encounter victims of trauma or traumatic situations on the job, are at risk of developing compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and experiencing symptoms similar to PTSD.[ citation needed ]

Predictive factors include, but are not limited to, the type of content they are reporting on, the conditions under which the content was acquired, the level of job commitment, perceived work pressure, and the amount of personal and professional social support. [13]

Photojournalism

Regarding the photographers side of Photojournalism, Sontag argues that photographing is essentially an act of non-intervention, therefore this inability to react in real life apparently touches photographer too. [14]

Since the photographers cannot intervene in events, part of the horror of memorable coups of photojournalism, which includes images of death comes from the awareness of how plausible it has become, in situations where the photographer has the choice between a photograph and a life, to choose the photograph. [14]

Even if the photographer creates sympathy, they also cut it off; they stir the senses but their 'realism crates a confession about the real', which, in the long term has the inevitable analgesic effect. [14]

Films and documentaries

Compassion, has grown in the joint between politics, humanitarian organizations, the media and the public. In the media there has been a growing focus on distant victims of civil wars, massacres and other violence against civil populations. The audience is left unmoved by the pictures of distant death and pain. [15]

Nick Clooney

An example of compassion fatigue seen with documentaries is the case of Nick Clooney. After his visit to Darfur in 2006 where he documented the genocide. He wanted to tell people of the atrocities in Darfur, but wanted to encourage his audience to act on it. He chose the format of documentary because he felt it gave him more freedom to be “honest,” about what was happening in Darfur. [16]

“ I went as a reporter, came back as an advocate."

In his book Human Rights Journalism, Seaga Shaw explains how there needs to be a bigger shift away from the familiar to the unfamiliar to provoke a reaction in audiences. Shaw advocates

"It will promote a better understanding of the undercurrents of the events and issues at stake, which will in turn provoke a more adequate response from the audience and live up to the expectations that journalism can influence the future direction of society." [16]

Content moderators

Though formal studies have not been conducted on this population of professionals, psychological distress in a social media content moderators [17] has been recognized by courts in the 2020 ruling against Facebook which resulted in a $52 million USD settlement paid out to content moderators developing PTSD as a result of trauma exposure on the job. [18]

Social media

Social media and compassion fatigue are related by the bridge that media creates between its users and access to information. With all of the resources made available by the online world, most of its users tend to see tragic articles and stories on different social media on a daily basis. After a few hours, the overwhelming amount of information becomes emotionally draining for the human brain. [19] The brain's natural response is to deny or suppress emotion, or in other words, to shut down compassion. Over time, the ongoing anguish is capable of creating a gap in the brain, and every emotion starts to become heavy and tiring. [20] As a result of this fatigue from news information overload, news consumers become more selective about the news they consume via social media. [21]

According to a research made by Keith Payne and Dayrl Cameron, psychologists at UNC Chapel Hill, the more victims people see (getting hurt or killed) online, the more they shut their emotions, for fear of it becoming too much. Plus, choosing whether to experience or suppress an emotion might alter our empathetic feelings. [22]

Overexposure to social media can also alter compassion in the way that people see reality. It blurs the line between what is acceptable, and take it to extremes. It can change how users see violence, creating a reality where violence is tolerable. [23] It also open doors to racism, sexism, political rants, or any other form of discrimination against a social minority/group of people. [19]

Related Research Articles

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a person's life or well-being. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event. Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk of suicide and intentional self-harm.

Psychological trauma is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events that are outside the normal range of human experiences. It must be understood by the affected person as directly threatening the affected person or their loved ones with death, severe bodily injury, or sexual violence; indirect exposure, such as from watching television news, may be extremely distressing and can produce an involuntary and possibly overwhelming physiological stress response, but does not produce trauma per se. Examples include violence, rape, or a terrorist attack.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is a stress-related mental disorder generally occurring in response to complex traumas, i.e., commonly prolonged or repetitive exposures to a series of traumatic events, within which individuals perceive little or no chance to escape.

Compassion fatigue is an evolving concept in the field of traumatology. The term has been used interchangeably with secondary traumatic stress (STS), which is sometimes simply described as the negative cost of caring. Secondary traumatic stress is the term commonly employed in academic literature, although recent assessments have identified certain distinctions between compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress (STS).

A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts involuntary recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent or a piece of clothing. Triggers can be subtle, individual, and difficult for others to predict. A trauma trigger may also be called a trauma stimulus, a trauma stressor or a trauma reminder.

As defined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, military sexual trauma (MST) are experiences of sexual assault, or repeated threatening sexual harassment that occurred while a person was in the United States Armed Forces.

Memory and trauma is the deleterious effects that physical or psychological trauma has on memory.

Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) is a mental health treatment model for children and adolescents who have been exposed to trauma, defined as experiencing, witnessing, or confronting "an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others". TST focuses on the child's emotional and behavioral needs as well as the environments where the child lives (home, school, community). The treatment model includes four components (skill-based psychotherapy, home and community-based care, advocacy, and psychopharmacology) that are fully described in a published manual. A clinical trial showed that TST is effective in improving the mental health and well-being of children who have been traumatized. TST has also been successfully replicated.

Vicarious trauma (VT) is a term invented by Irene Lisa McCann and Laurie Anne Pearlman that is used to describe how work with traumatized clients affects trauma therapists. The phenomenon had been known as secondary traumatic stress, a term coined by Charles Figley. In vicarious trauma, the therapist experiences a profound worldview change and is permanently altered by empathetic bonding with a client. This change is thought to have three requirements: empathic engagement and exposure to graphic, traumatizing material; exposure to human cruelty; and the reenactment of trauma in therapy. This can produce changes in a therapist's spirituality, worldview, and self-identity.

Childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder that can develop in women who have recently given birth. This disorder can also affect men or partners who have observed a difficult birth. Its symptoms are not distinct from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It may also be called post-traumatic stress disorder following childbirth (PTSD-FC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgenerational trauma</span> Psychological trauma

Transgenerational trauma is the psychological and physiological effects that the trauma experienced by people has on subsequent generations in that group. The primary mode of transmission is the shared family environment of the infant causing psychological, behavioral and social changes in the individual.

Psychological first aid (PFA) is a technique designed to reduce the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder. It was developed by the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (NC-PTSD), a section of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2006. It has been endorsed and used by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the American Psychological Association (APA) and many others. It was developed in a two-day intensive collaboration, involving more than 25 disaster mental health researchers, an online survey of the first cohort that used PFA and repeated reviews of the draft.

A moral injury is an injury to an individual's moral conscience and values resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression on the part of themselves or others. It produces profound feelings of guilt or shame, moral disorientation, and societal alienation. In some cases it may cause a sense of betrayal and anger toward colleagues, commanders, the organization, politics, or society at large.

Anna B. Baranowsky is a Canadian Clinical Psychologist and the founder and CEO of the Traumatology Institute (TI). She works with trauma survivors and those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on post-traumatic growth and recovery. Baranowsky also assists organizations and professionals who help trauma survivors. The mandate of the Traumatology Institute is to raise awareness about Post-Traumatic Stress and trauma informed care options.

Secondary trauma can be incurred when an individual is exposed to people who have been traumatized themselves, disturbing descriptions of traumatic events by a survivor, or others inflicting cruelty on one another. Symptoms of secondary trauma are similar to those of PTSD. Secondary trauma has been researched in first responders, nurses and physicians, mental health care workers, and children of traumatized parents.

Trauma-sensitive yoga is yoga as exercise, adapted from 2002 onwards for work with individuals affected by psychological trauma. Its goal is to help trauma survivors to develop a greater sense of mind-body connection, to ease their physiological experiences of trauma, to gain a greater sense of ownership over their bodies, and to augment their overall well-being. However, a 2019 systematic review found that the studies to date were not sufficiently robustly designed to provide strong evidence of yoga's effectiveness as a therapy; it called for further research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trauma and first responders</span> Trauma experienced by first responders

Trauma in first responders refers to the psychological trauma experienced by first responders, such as police officers, firefighters, and paramedics, often as a result of events experienced in their line of work. The nature of a first responder's occupation continuously puts them in harm's way and regularly exposes them to traumatic situations, such as people who have been harmed, injured, or killed.

In psychology, Trauma-informed feminist therapy is a model of trauma for both men and women that incorporates the client's sociopolitical context.

Being exposed to traumatic events such as war, violence, disasters, loss, injury or illness can cause trauma. Additionally, the most common diagnostic instruments such as the ICD-11 and the DSM-5 expand on this definition of trauma to include perceived threat to death, injury, or sexual violence to self or a loved one. Even after the situation has passed, the experience can bring up a sense of vulnerability, hopelessness, anger and fear.

Over the last fifty years, there has been an increase in the different types of media that are accessible to the public. Most people use online search engines, social media, or other online news outlets to find out what is going on in the world. This increase can lead to people easily viewing negative images and stories about traumatic events that they would not have been exposed to otherwise. One thing to consider is how the dissemination of this information may be impacting the mental health of people who identify with the victims of the violence they hear and see through the media. The viewing of these traumatic videos and stories can lead to the vicarious traumatization of the viewers.  

References

  1. 1 2 3 Figley, C. R., ed. (2002). Treating compassion fatigue. Brunner-Routledge. ISBN   9781138883826.
  2. ↑ Meadors, Patrick; Lamson, Angela; Swanson, Mel; White, Mark; Sira, Natalia (2009–2010). "Secondary traumatization in pediatric healthcare providers: compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress". Omega. 60 (2): 103–128. doi:10.2190/om.60.2.a. ISSN   0030-2228. PMID   20222232. S2CID   35714941.
  3. 1 2 Figley, Charles (1995). Compassion Fatigue. US: Routledge. ISBN   9780203777381.
  4. ↑ Hoffman, Shari; Palladino, John M.; Barnett, Jeffery (2007). "Compassion Fatigue as a Theoretical Framework to Help Understand Burnout among Special Education Teachers": 15–22.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ↑ Holcombe, T. Melissa; Strand, Elizabeth B.; Nugent, William R.; Ng, Zenithson Y. (2016-01-02). "Veterinary social work: Practice within veterinary settings". Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 26 (1): 69–80. doi:10.1080/10911359.2015.1059170. ISSN   1091-1359. S2CID   146338069.
  6. ↑ Turgoose, D.; Glover, N.; Barker, C.; Maddox, L. (2017). "Empathy, compassion fatigue and burnout in police officers working with rape victims". Traumatology. 23 (2): 205–213. doi:10.1037/trm0000118. ISSN   1534-7656. S2CID   55719767.
  7. ↑ Rauvola, Rachel S.; Vega, Dulce M.; Lavigne, Kristi N. (2019-09-01). "Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Vicarious Traumatization: a Qualitative Review and Research Agenda". Occupational Health Science. 3 (3): 297–336. doi: 10.1007/s41542-019-00045-1 . ISSN   2367-0142. S2CID   202266058.
  8. ↑ Cocker, Joss, Fiona, Nerida (June 2016). "Compassion Fatigue among Healthcare, Emergency and Community Service Workers: A Systematic Review". Int J Environ Res Public Health. 618 (6): 618. doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060618 . PMC   4924075 . PMID   27338436.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Cocker, Fiona; Joss, Nerida (June 2016). "Compassion Fatigue among Healthcare, Emergency and Community Service Workers: A Systematic Review". International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 13 (6): 618. doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060618 . ISSN   1660-4601. PMC   4924075 . PMID   27338436.
  10. ↑ Paiva-Salisbury, Melissa L.; Schwanz, Kerry A. (2022-02-01). "Building Compassion Fatigue Resilience: Awareness, Prevention, and Intervention for Pre-Professionals and Current Practitioners". Journal of Health Service Psychology. 48 (1): 39–46. doi:10.1007/s42843-022-00054-9. ISSN   2662-2653. PMC   8812061 . PMID   35136862.
  11. ↑ Merriman, Julie (July 2015). "Enhancing Counselor Supervision Through Compassion Fatigue Education". Journal of Counseling & Development. 93 (3): 370–378. doi:10.1002/jcad.12035.
  12. ↑ Potter, Patricia; Pion, Sarah; Gentry, J. Eric (February 2015). "Compassion Fatigue Resiliency Training: The Experience of Facilitators". The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. 46 (2): 83–88. doi:10.3928/00220124-20151217-03. ISSN   0022-0124. PMID   25522376.
  13. ↑ Dworznik, Gretchen (2018-05-28). "Personal and Organizational Predictors of Compassion Fatigue Symptoms in Local Television Journalists". Journalism Practice. 12 (5): 640–656. doi:10.1080/17512786.2017.1338532. ISSN   1751-2786. S2CID   148764475.
  14. 1 2 3 Taylor, John (September 1998). Body Horror: Photojournalism, Catastrophe and War . NYU Press. p.  21. ISBN   9780814782392. Since the photographers cannot intervene in events, part of the horror of memorable coups of photojournalism which includes images of death comes from the awareness of how plausible it has became[ sic?].
  15. ↑ Höijer, Birgitta (2004-07-01). "The Discourse of Global Compassion: The Audience and Media Reporting of Human Suffering". Media, Culture & Society. 26 (4): 513–531. doi:10.1177/0163443704044215. ISSN   0163-4437. S2CID   143229179.
  16. 1 2 Charles, Mathew (2013). "News Documentary and Advocacy Journalism" (PDF). Bournemouth University.
  17. ↑ Benjelloun, Otheman, Roukaya, Yassine (October 2020). "Psychological distress in a social media content moderator: A case report" (PDF). Archives of Psychiatry and Mental Health. 10 (1001024): 073–075. doi:10.29328/journal.apmh.1001024. S2CID   226322014.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ Allyn, Bobby (May 2020). "In Settlement, Facebook To Pay $52 Million To Content Moderators With PTSD". NPR. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  19. 1 2 Yunus, Uzma (2015-11-17). "Preserving Your Sanity in the Age of Social Media". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  20. ↑ "Is Technology Destroying Empathy? (Op-Ed)". Live Science. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  21. ↑ Lee, Sun Kyong; Lindsey, Nathan J.; Kim, Kyun Soo (2017-10-01). "The effects of news consumption via social media and news information overload on perceptions of journalistic norms and practices". Computers in Human Behavior. 75: 254–263. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.007. ISSN   0747-5632.
  22. ↑ "Why is the death of one million a statistic?". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  23. ↑ Tulipani, Courtney L. (2016). "Social Media's Impact on Compassion".
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